Baseline study on the training and certification requirements for fishers in EU Member States : final report

Training and skills enable fishers to be more efficient, resilient, sustainable and work safer. This is important for one of the world's most dangerous professions. It is also important in making the profession more attractive in the EU at a time when generational renewal is a major concern. It is also a key plank of the social dimension of the Common Fisheries Policy and the Fisheries and Oceans Pact. A number of existing international treaties and EU Directives already provide frameworks for fisher training and skills, but the degree of compliance with these is not well documented. Moreover, despite the European Commission's urging, EU Member States have been slow to ratify the key international treaty in this area, namely the International Convention on Standards of Training, Certification and Watchkeeping for Fishing Vessel Personnel (STCW-F) adopted in 1995. Only ten Member States have done so, whereas 22 coastal Member States have fishing fleets. The absence of a harmonised EU-wide approach to the basic safety competences, safe navigation, and safe propulsion of fishing vessels that the STCW-F describes complicates the mutual recognition of certificates, posing barriers to labour mobility and increasing administrative burdens. This lack of alignment also impacts safety, as training standards and competencies vary widely.